Is Russia currently using St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a pawn in its conflict with the West?.
Many people are asking this question in the wake of the landing of an aircraft owned by the Russian state space agency Roscosmos on May 3 and which departed on May 7th.
The United States expanded its anti-Russian sanctions in 2022, covering Roscosmos companies: the Lavochkin Research and Production Association, which develops interplanetary automated vehicles; the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems, which manufactures navigation and communications satellites; and the Russian Space Systems holding company, specializing in the development of microelectronic devices.
On its route, which started in Moscow on April 27, the plane made multiple stops, including Tunisia, Cape Verde, Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Cuba, before landing in St Vincent.
What is even more interesting is that the countries that permitted the landing of the sanctioned Russian-owned aircraft, with the exception of Cape Verde and St. Vincent, are either under US sanctions or about to be sanctioned.
Tunisia: Academics, rights advocates, and former diplomats in the United States have called on President Joe Biden to suspend aid to Tunisia and impose sanctions on its leaders to halt what they called the North African country’s “dramatic turn” towards authoritarian rule.
In a letter addressed to Biden earlier last week, nearly two dozen signatories warned that democracy in Tunisia was “dying” as President Kais Saied continued to consolidate power and crack down on dissent.
Venezuela: The United States has prohibited all U.S. commercial arms sales and retransfers to Venezuela since 2006. In 2008, the Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on two individuals and two travel agencies in Venezuela for financially supporting the radical Lebanon-based Islamic Shiite group Hezbollah.
Cuba: The United States embargo against Cuba prevents U.S. businesses and businesses organized under U.S. law or majority-owned by U.S. citizens from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history.
Honduras: At present The case made in the U.S. Senate’s Honduras bill sounds straightforward: Washington should cut security aid to Honduras and sanction its president over “deeply alarming corruption” and human rights abuses, its authors say.
Nicaragua: Earlier this year, President Biden increased the pressure on Nicaragua’s authoritarian regime by sanctioning the country’s gold industry and imposing visa restrictions on more than 500 key supporters of President Daniel Ortega.
Algeria: In late 2022, Twenty-seven members of the US Congress called for “immediate” action to sanction the Algerian government for its involvement in the purchase of Russian arms.
In a bipartisan letter addressed to US Secretary Antony Blinken on Thursday, congresspeople from both sides of the aisle recalled Algeria’s extravagant purchase of Russian arms, which totaled $7 billion last year alone.
Why then did St. Vincent officials permit a Russian government-owned aircraft belonging to Roscomos which is US-sanctioned to land at the Argyle Airport?
The meeting between the two countries on April 19 in Caracas might hold the answer to to that question.
During that meeting, TASS reported that the two parties “emphasized the fundamental rejection of the policy of unilateral sanctions imposed in violation of the principles and norms of international law and reaffirmed their commitment to establishing a multipolar world based on genuine equality and reciprocal respect for the interests of states.”
While St. Vincent is still making a name for itself on the international stage, Kingstown should err on the side of caution and not give away whatever leverage it may have.
Calls to airport authorities proved futile in getting answers as to why the aircraft was here.
The publication understands that the aircraft left for Algiers the capital of Algeria on Sunday night.
Russian state aircraft at St Vincent’s Argyle Airport sparks debate